EVIDENCE THAT AMERICANS NEVER DID TALK POLITICS WITH PEOPLE THEY DISAGREED WITH. Jill Lepore writes that: “Political argument has been having a terrible century.” She cites polls which show that: “One in three Americans declines to discuss politics except in private; fewer than one in four ever talk with someone with whom they disagree politically….”
Jill Lepore also quotes the moderator of a debate series on the radio in 1935: “If we persist in the the practice of Republicans reading only Republican newspapers, listening only to Republican speeches on the radio, attending only Republican political rallies, and mixing socially only with those of congenial views, and if Democrats follow suit, we are sowing the seeds of the destruction of our democracy.”
Perhaps things haven’t changed much.